Consumers Believe More Viruses Are Coming

A new global security survey from BitDefender asked consumers their views on the current state of computer security, what they considered to be the most important security components and what new features they would like to see from leading security software vendors. The findings were that:

• 83 percent of respondents believe that computer security threats are “growing rapidly,” and almost all of those polled saw protection of one’s computer system from viruses and other malware as being extremely important.

• 92 percent of the respondents chose “anti-virus security” as the most important component of their IT security protection. “Anti-spyware” ranked second.

• The top reasons for selecting a security software solution were “performance” and “software’s reaction time to new threats,” followed by “price” and “recommendations.”

• Of the additional features offered by security vendors, 85 percent of the respondents chose “automatic software upgrades” as being extremely important, while the “ability to scan PDF and Zip files” and the “notification of new viruses/malware” came in as the second and third most important features, respectively.

• Topping the list of incentives that might convince users to switch their security solutions was the vendor’s willingness to let the user install the security software on multiple computers.

Survey Finds Online Fraud Proliferating

Internet users who have experienced online fraud lost an average of 875 British pounds each over the past 12 months, according to “Internet Safety: The State of the Nation,” research by the UK’s government and industry online safety campaign, “Get Safe Online.”

A survey of UK Internet adult users — who number 29 million — found that 12 percent (almost 3.5 million people) had experienced online fraud in the last year. In that time, six percent of all Internet users (1.7 million people) suffered fraud while shopping online, five percent (1.5 million) experienced another form of general online fraud and four percent (1.2 million) were subject to bank account or credit card fraud as a result of activity online — some users experienced more than one of these.

The Get Safe Online research pointed to the fact that if Internet users took the same precautions in the virtual world that they do in the real world, a substantial proportion of online fraud losses could be prevented. Fewer than half of UK Internet users felt they were responsible for their own online safety. One-in-six believed their bank is wholly responsible for their online protection, while 13 percent felt that online security should be handled by their Internet service provider (ISP).

Nearly half said they did not have protection from spyware. A fifth of those polled said they had replied to spam messages and 10 percent had clicked on an Internet link within a spam e-mail.

Nearly a quarter said most of their online security passwords were the same. Five percent used the same password for every site.

“The Internet is a fantastic resource and its use is growing daily. Unfortunately, it is now also being used by criminals who are out to defraud us,” said Tony Neate, MD of Get Safe Online. “Our message is that each one of us has to take greater personal responsibility for our own online security. To help achieve this Get Safe Online has a website, www.getsafeonline.org, which provides all the information that people need to know in order to safeguard themselves from criminal activity online.”

Data Backup and Recovery for SMBs

HP has introduced a disk-based backup and recovery system that makes data protection and disaster recovery simple, reliable and affordable. Designed expressly for the business continuity and IT needs of small and medium businesses (SMBs), the HP StorageWorks D2D Backup System automates and centralizes backup to provide reliable data protection for up to four servers in a single, secure, self-managing device.

The HP D2D Backup System integrates into existing network-based IT environments and can be configured and managed in three intuitive steps. Daily backups become fully automatic, reducing the risk of human error and hardware problems. Restoring lost or corrupted files also becomes easier because backup data is stored online, where it can be restored in minutes instead of hours.

The system is also at least 50 percent less expensive than competing systems’ list prices.

Similar to the HP StorageWorks All-in-One Storage Systems, HP has greatly simplified setup and installation for SMBs with the HP D2D Backup System. It features an iSCSI interface that plugs into a standard Ethernet network and a setup wizard that allows customers with little or no storage experience to configure the device.

Consolidating backups onto a single disk-based system eliminates the need for multiple direct-attached backup devices and the associated management overhead. Additionally, browser-based management allows customers to monitor their HP D2D Backup System from anywhere on the network, at any time.